KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 16
Asian Development Bank (ADB) Country Director for Nepal Arnaud Cauchois on February 14 and 15 visited the Narayanghat-Butwal section of the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Road Improvement Project (SRIP) and observed the current status of the construction amid concerns of delays.
The visit also included meetings with ministers of economic affairs and cooperatives and physical infrastructure development of Lumbini Province, mayor of Butwal, government officials, and local authorities.
"The road construction and maintenance work has picked up pace in the recent months, but clearly it needs to be expedited further," said Cauchois. "I had constructive meetings with the project team, consultants, and contractors, and I'm hopeful whatever issues remain in terms of managing resources and construction materials will be resolved soon."
Cauchois also emphasised on the urgency to complete construction of bridges before onset of the monsoon in places where the original bridges were damaged or destroyed by the 2021 floods.
He also discussed improving road maintenance, better traffic management, and deploying better road diversions to avoid traffic congestions as the roads are being constructed and upgraded.
Cauchois was accompanied by Project Director of SRIP Sushil Babu Dhakal, and other staff of Department of Roads. Cauchois visited at least four bridge construction sites, crusher plant sites, batching plant site, labour and contractor camp sites, among others.
"This stretch of road once upgraded is expected to bring economic benefits by providing better access to local and regional markets and making movements of goods and people easier," said Cauchois. "Further delays are unacceptable, and everyone must work together to complete this road network on agreed schedule."
"The pandemic disrupted work to some extent. And delays in tree cutting and shifting of electric poles also hindered the progress," Dhakal said. "But now these issues have been almost resolved, and we have asked the contractors to accelerate construction work and deploy all their resources to make up for the lost time."
The project, financed by ADB, is upgrading 154 km of Nepal's strategic road network and improving country's domestic and regional transport connectivity.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 17, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.